I know I'm jumping on the bandwagon a little late here (I will once again use my "new mom who was living out in the woods with no Internet" card), but I've decided to try the "A Week in the Life" project from the lovely Ali Edwards.

Now, I know that I'm not so great with finishing projects, especially minis (see December Daily, see 52Qs, see Bits of Life, see 5 Amazing Years of Loving You, see Project 365, and so on), but I figured, what the heck, might as well add to the unfinished pile, lol.

(side: is anyone else like this with their crafts too?  Tons of half-finished projects lying about?  I hope so!)

Anyway, back to the project.  I read most of Ali's posts about the project earlier today and it sounds totally appealing to me, mostly because I really want to capture and document our life right now, with Victor leaving the newborn phase and becoming a young infant (3 months), and with us having just moved back home.  It's an important time in our lives, I feel like it's the "beginning" of a new stage, so getting it all down on paper with words and photos seems like something I want (and, in a way, should) do.

I think I'm going to start not this week but next (starting Sunday, May 30), which means I'll have this week to prepare and get my supplies together.  Since I want to make this as easy as possible for me, I'm going to do as much in advance as I can, like build the album, print off any necessary journaling cards/whatever, choose my paper/embellishments, and have all the things I know I want to document listed out.  Ali suggested using different themes and elements of the day to fill in your journaling, and I really like that idea, especially if it's mostly "fill in the blank" type stuff.

Here are a few of the things I'm going to document (either through words or pics):

-To-do list: I'll probably make one at the beginning of the week and then break it up to a few tasks per day.  I can then check off what I actually did and didn't do

-The weather: Because I'm obsessed with the weather, like all good Canadians

-My outfit for the day: Just to get a laugh, and probably to encourage me to actually get dressed!  I might also do Victor's outfit(s) for the day too, to see the little clothes that he's wearing now (and will soon grow out of)

-Victor's eating and sleeping schedule: This will be really hard to do, but I think that it would be really neat to look back on, plus I'm curious to see myself!

-What we watch: Right now we're on Season 4 of Dexter

-What Internet sites we visit: This is always fun to look back on, especially when the sites no longer exist (à la Kristina Contes)

-Our menu for the week: Pretty basic, but if we try a new recipe I might include it

-Daily tasks/routines: Either chores or errands-most likely part of the to-do list

-Who we see: Pics of my parents, the dogs, my sister, etc

-What Victor is currently doing and into: This week it's eating his hands, for example

-Items from our daily lives: The 'stuff' that we use everyday

-Random thoughts: As an add on to this I might ask Dan a question per day and get him to answer it

There are probably others but that's what I'm thinking of right now.  I might not do all of these either, I'm going to try and be flexible with the project too, because if it gets too restricting, I won't finish it.  I will use this blog as a sort of 'catch all' during the week, maybe putting up photos, bullet points of journaling, whatever I can daily in order to keep me accountable.  This is what I will use as the base of my album.

As for the the finished album itself, I'm still not 100% decided on what I should do.  I think that in order to keep it simple (again), I should stick to the basics when it comes to the creative/aesthetic look of the album, otherwise it'll never get done (again, see projects above).  Like Ali always says, the important part is the photos+words, so that'll be my main goal as well.  I'm also really into clean, simple lines these days, without a ton of clutter (see my Pregnancy Photobook), so I think that I'll carry that over into this project.  I'm also getting more and more into Photoshop and using it for things other than photo editing (like my blog banner above), so I may try to create photo collages/journaling + photo pages, ect.  Ali's templates will be my inspiration, but I don't know if I'll follow them exactly. 

I like the idea of an 8.5X11 album, but I'm also debating whether to go down to an 8X8 (a size I haven't used yet).  A smaller size means less to fill, but if I need to add extra pages I can.  Page protectors are definitely the way I'll be going, so something like this AC modern D-ring album might work.  The other thing I'm not sure about is whether I'll use baseball card page protectors or not.  I like the idea, but at the same time if I can't find any locally or that would fit into an 8X8 album, I might just do regular pages, but have the layout of one of the page match the look of being in those page protectors (a grid of photos, journaling cards, etc)  At this point I'm still not sure, it'll also depend on what I can get my hands on this week, since I want the album to be mostly built before I begin.

Now, I'm going to up front with the obstacles I see in this project, because I can already think of a few that might get in the way of me actually going through with it, but I figure if I write them out now, I can be aware of them during the week and try to overcome them.

My camera: Don't get my wrong, I love my 50D, it's a really nice camera...but maybe it's too nice.  It's quite big and heavy and bulky, which makes it hard to just pick up and use all the time, especially when we go out.  I'm shy enough as it is taking photos in public (something I REALLY need to get over), so having a monster camera to do it with doesn't make it any easier.  Having a smaller point and shoot would probably work better for this project, so I might look into getting one this week too (I talked about getting one earlier this year, I just never got around to it.)  Also, when I sold my Rebel XT I sold the 18-55mm lens that came with it, so now all I have is my 50mm prime, which is great for outdoors and close ups, but not so great if I want to take pictures of an entire room or anything like that.  I may have to borrow my mom or sister's camera, we'll have to see.

The monotony of our days: I know that we're supposed to embrace the small things, the seemingly unimportant things of our lives, but I think that I may struggle with capturing these things a bit, especially since our days are so similar and 'boring' (maybe to counteract this I should plan some activities for the week to make it seem less mundane).

Journaling: I suck at it, enough said.  This is where the "fill in the blank" type journaling prompts/cards will really help me.

Ok, well I've blathered on about this waaay more than I intended to.  Point is, I'm going to try it, I'm excited, and I really hope that it doesn't become another one of Geneviève's unfinished minis (which, by the way, I totally intend on finishing at some point....maybe...we'll see.)

Hopefully I'll report back this week with the preparations for the project.

Has anyone done this project? Please link me up if you can, I'd love to have some inspiration!

Until next time,

G.

52Qs-Another batch

Last week while my mom was here I managed to get 4 more of my 52Qs done, so I thought I'd share them real quick on this rainy, gray January day.

Here we go:

Question 21: If I had 1 day with no restrictions, what would I do?

I had this leftover cardboard packaging from some chipboard clocks I bought for my DD, and I knew right away that I wanted to use it in some sort of way, so I decided to fill in each circle with things I would do if I had a free day off (ironically they aren't all that unusual from my daily life!)

Question 6: If I could do it all over again, would I change anything?

This is one of the tougher questions for me, and I knew that I wanted to journal quite a bit about it so I decided to add an envelope and tuck the journaling inside...the journaling is yet to be written, but I will do it soon, I promise!

Question 29: Do I have a recurring dream?

My dreams have been scattered and weird lately, but one thing I kept dreaming about last week was my water breaking (usually it just made me wake up and have to pee though). I think it had to do with all the worrying I was doing of going into labour while Dan was away. Now they're back to just being weird or blank.

Question 33: What am I crossing my fingers for?

Pretty easy answer, I'm crossing my fingers for a healthy baby and easy labour! (I noticed afterwards that the design for this card is really similar to the dream card, both using belly shots...weird.)

Anyway, I'm slowly catching up on these, I think I'm over half finished at this point, so I hope to do a few more this week and get them done soon! I love how the album is turning out, I look through it and see the story of my life over the last year and I'm glad that I captured as much as I did. One of my fav projects for sure :)

This week Dan's mom is here for a visit so we're taking it pretty easy. Tonight we're going for a tour of the hospital where I'll be giving birth, that should be interesting and will really bring home the fact that I'm going to having this baby in 6 weeks or less! Oddly I'm more excited than worried/scared at this point, I'm really anxious to see him/meet him, but as soon as my water breaks that'll probably change completely, lol. I'm trying to stay positive though, not to fear it but to welcome it and accept that it has to happen but that I'm made to do it and that everything will be fine. Positive hippie stuff, you know.

Alright, off to knit and watch some LOST! Hopefully I'll be back later this week, I feel like I have some rambling I want to do but I'm not sure if this is the best place to do it, so we shall see.

Have a good week everyone!

52Qs X4

Happy Friday everyone! To be honest the days are kind of running together for me now so it doesn't make much of a difference that it's Friday, the only good part about it is that Dan will be around tomorrow and Sunday, so hopefully the days won't seem so long. I'm thinking that I need some sort of out-of-the-box activity to do so that I don't fall too much in a rut/slump, I'll let you know how it goes!

Anyway, over the past week I've been working on my 52Qs, which I'm ridiculously behind on (only about 50-60% of them done), but I'm having a good time making them so I don't mind having them to do. Here are my latest 4:

Question 42: What's my favourite holiday?
I didn't have any Halloween themed stuff left except for the small bit of paper, but I tried to capture the general feeling of Halloween in the colours and collage stuff (plus the gross green paint).


Question 45: What song do I have on repeat?
Easy answer, I've been obsessed with these 2 songs for months and months now.


Question 50: What do I love most about where I live?
There could have been so many answers to this question, but what stuck out to me the most was the fact that we have 4 very distinct and wonderful seasons and that we have sooo much space (something I've really been missing since living in Hali).


Question 52: What magical thing happened to me this year?
Easiest answer ever :)

Ok that's all for now, I'll probably aim to get 4 or 5 done a week from now on so hopefully they will be all done before I have to pack up my scrap space in Feb. I technically didn't start this project until Feb-Mar last year, so technically I'm not behind, it hasn't been a full year yet, right? Technically...

Any scrap (or other crafty) projects that you're currently trying to catch up on?

G.

December Daily-Days 8 to 12

Playing major catch-up, but I'm not letting it get too out of control! Anyway, here we go, Day 8 to 12. (Sorry for the blurry photos, my kit lens and I aren't friends at the moment and it's dark at 4pm, what can a girl do?)

The spreads:

The pages:

Day 8, really simple, I just journaled about the good news that I got at the doctor's that day (that we can most likely have a natural birth and not a c-section, my heart tests all came back positive with a less than 5% chance of complications, which is great news.) This journal is ending up being pretty baby-focused, but that's where my life is at right now, so if it ends up being that way, it's ok with me, especially if I'm not capturing the memories elsewhere.

Day 9, I wasn't sure what to do (nothing happened that day), so I decided to use an old photo of my sister and I and journal 9 things I remember from my childhood Christmases (many are duplicates of the memories I have in another mini, but oh well, they're better documented in this one.)

Day 10, pretty self-explanatory, trying to remember and appreciate the simple pleasures from this time of year (including a Starbucks Caramel Brulé latte, I'm addicted to these sugary things, I swear...included the cliched coffee sleeve of course.)

Day 11, another mostly journaling page with an old photo of me. Just talking about my general feelings for the season, which so far have been pretty low/uninvolved. It's just all happening TOO FAST, a sentiment I think many of us can agree on! For this page I used some Christmas rub-ones my mom gave me, they are so cute!

Day 12, another envelope page, and for some reason that day I was really missing Heather, so I decided to use a pic of her from our last shoot together and write a little letter saying why I missed her especially during this time of year. Here it is (it's mushy, be warned.) I really like how this one came out kind of graphic-looking with the rub-ons, it's a bit different than the rest of the vintage-ey look I got going on in the album, yet it still goes :)

Dear Hea-tha,

There are so many things that I miss doing with you now that you’ve moved out West, but during the holidays it’s especially noticeable. My Christmas spirit has not been nearly as high this year and part of the reason is not having you here to do things with, like baking and crafting, shopping and watching movies, and all the other little outings/traditions that we’ve done together over the past 3 years.

I had a sudden pang the other night to go to Starbucks/Chapters to browse the Christmas items and drink yuppie coffees while chatting, but that was something we used to do, and without you it’s just not the same.

I know that we’ll see each other again and we will keep in touch for the rest of our lives, and for that I’m very grateful, but I must honestly say that I miss you my friend, but especially so at Christmastime.

Love,

Geneviève

Well that's it, still enjoying the process, even if I'm a little behind. It's not planned, but it's still happening, and that's the fun part :)

Until Days 13 to 17!

Loves,

G.

December Daily-Days 4 to 7

Here we go, the rest of the pages from my December Daily (so far).

The spreads:

(with quote card closed to hide journaling)

(with quote card open to reveal journaling)

And the pages:

This is good example of doing a page that was completely unrelated to Christmas, but it's still representing a time in my life, which I like (especially now since I'm trying to capture as much of this pregnancy as possible).

Confession time: This photo was not from Dec 6th, or from this year for that matter, it's an old photo of my parent's camp in the wintertime that I used to represent the snow falling on that day.

Simple envelope that I embellished with a Christmas tree trinket that I got from a Christmas candle.

Again, the journaling comes straight from a blog post, printed onto cardstock and tucked in the envelope. I may go back and add a photo or another souvenir of the day later, or I might just keep it as is.

So that's it for now, I have to catch up on Days 8-10, so I'll probably share those over the weekend.

If you're doing a December Daily/Christmas journal, how's it going? I'd love to hear of your experiences with it, especially if you're a first-timer like me!

December Daily-Days 1 to 3

*Days 4-7 coming tomorrow*

I have to start off by saying that I'm pretty impressed that I'm keeping up with my December Daily so far (I'm only 2 days behind plus today, so not bad!) I wasn't sure how it was going to go, especially since this Christmas hasn't been very 'Christmas-ey' so far, but I decided a few things right from the get-go that I think are helping me not stress out about it:

-I'm not forcing myself to take pics everyday. If I do, great, if not I'm using other things or just journaling (I'm trying to make the journaling the main focus)
-I'm not making all the pages about Christmas or the even season at all, some are completely random
-I'm not doing the days in order. I have 'themes' that I think of for each day at the end of the day and include on the page, but I might not get it done on that particular day
-I'm trying to keep the layouts simple, with just a few embellies/add-ons here are there, but I'm mostly sticking to my base page and adding words

So with all of that in mind, here's what I've come up with so far! (Page spreads shown first, then individual pages)

The spreads:

(with the MS card closed to hide the journaling)

(with the MS card opened to reveal the pics and journaling for Day 3)

And here are my pages:

For this page I took the goals I had written in this post, printed them on a tag and slipped them into the vellum pocket I made. Added some little Christmas pop-up stickers from an old Christmas cards and that's it!

Pretty basic layout about the music I listen to at Christmastime.

I was originally going to print off the little pics of the crafts I wanted to do, but I got lazy and just cut them out of the magazine instead. The arrow points to the journaling card on the other side so that it's obvious the journaling goes with Day 3 (I like the idea of having 'add-ons' thrown in here and there, plus it gives me more room per page to work, since this album is only 6X6.)

So that's Days 1-3, be sure to check back tomorrow for Days 4-7! Thanks for looking :)

Sunday Scrappy Vault-Volume 2

While packing away all of my scrapbook albums the other day (they are quite heavy!), I decided it might be fun to take a picture of all of my minis together (they usually sit in a basket on the shelf), and as I looked through them again, I remembered how much I love making them. Minis are great because you have the freedom to do whatever you want; they can be about a specific topic, or just be completely random (I have a nice mix of both). You can usually get one done in a couple of days, they don't always require photos, you can used lots of mixed media, you can choose whatever size you want, and you can just play. I would say that this past year minis have been 75% of my scrapping projects, either as gifts or as on going projects.

My minis include:
-Happiness is... (this is a 6X6 album with sleeves that I occasionally fill with mini pages)
-Project 365 (the behemoth mini that I finished back in June...also the most expensive one!)
-Moi, just 'cuz (mini tin with pullout pics)
-Random '08 mini (my very first mini! 5X5 chipboard album)
-I love art (my 2nd mini ever, made from old file folders)
-5 Amazing years of loving you (4X6 chipboard album)
-Christmas memories (chipboard arrow mini)
-Learn to love your handwriting dammit! (Pringles top mini)
-Summer '08 (hand-bound book made from Toast catalogue pages and corrugated cardboard)
-Bits of life mini (made from 2 long envelopes as cover and random sized pages inside)
-Favourite mini (K&Co mini-kit...the only time I've ever not made a mini from scratch)
-Ode to Autumn '08 (another hand-bound book made from Toast catalogue pages)

I also have my 52Q and December Daily minis that I'm currently working on (my goal is to have them done before the baby is born), and I've also done a few others as gifts for friends and family, so since I started in March of 2008 I've created nearly 20. It's hard to choose a favourite, they are all quite different and meant something to me at the time while I was making them. I think I'll be making minis for quite a long time.

Now, time for my guilty confession: Although I love making minis, sometimes I don't always love filling them out/finishing them. For example, 4 of the albums above aren't 100% done. This usually happens when I make a mini with the intention of filling it in later...a lot of the time it just doesn't happen, or the inspiration stops before it gets done and I just end up putting it away, or I run out of ideas and pages are left blank. I always have the intention of going back and finishing them, but rarely does this happen. (The same goes with my scrapbook pages in general, especially when it comes to journaling...)

Does this every happen to anyone else?

Ok, well that's all for this edition of the Scrappy Vault, until next time!

December Daily

Well, here it is, my first ever December Daily album. I saw this, of course, on Ali Edward's blog back in October and decided immediately that I wanted to make one. Last year I had done a mini about Christmas memories from my childhood, but I wanted to capture something about this year, the daily preparation of getting ready for Christmas, moving, baby, and everything else in between. It seemed like an appropriate year to capture.

When it comes to Christmas in general, I really tend to stick to more traditional things...some would even say 'country'. I just love the homey, nostalgic feeling of a beautiful green tree with ribbon and wooden ornaments and traditional colours. Not to say I don't appreciate the more modern Christmas looks out there, I do, but when it comes to my own tree/home/decor, I tend to stick to a traditional Christmas (I'll post pics later this week showing what I mean.) This December Daily book is no different. I used pretty traditional colours and looks, though it's not 'them-ey' by any means (not a Santa or elf in sight!) I knew that a lot of my days wouldn't be necessarily Christmas-related, so I wanted to keep it fairly 'neutral', but still appear to be appropriate for Christmas, if that makes sense.

(Pardon the flash and dirty linoleum floor, there's not a lot of options when it gets dark at 4:30!)

Album details:
-6X6 chipboard album cover (it was originally 12X6 but I cut the sheets in half)
-Most of the pages are chipboard, with a few envelopes and vellum sheets tossed in as well.
-Mostly used BG, K&Co and random papers from my Stash. Also used some brown velour, green textured paper and silver sparkly paper.
-Embellies include MM clocks, random ribbons, bits, journaling cards, vellum pockets, some Thickers and a few buttons (again, kept it simple and inexpensive)
-Numbers are by Shabby Chic crafts, I love how they fit into the album! I had no idea if the colours would work but they did on almost every page :)

Well that's all for tonight. Will post more Christmas projects tomorrow (including that long overdue wreath), and maybe some more Christmas inspo on Friday if there's time. I'm heading home for a long weekend on Friday, I can't wait, it's going to be busy but sooo nice to get away and see friends/family.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americanos out there, enjoy the rest of your week!

Loves,
G.